Advanced Text-book of English Composition, in Prose and Verse ...

C. Arrange each of the following into Simple Regular Tetrameters and Trimeters, rhyming alternately:

1. With childish tears are my eyes dim, idly stirred is my heart; for the same sound which I heard in those days is in my ears.

2. They never do wage a foolish strife with Nature; a happy youth they see, and free and beautiful is their old age.

3. But we with heavy laws are pressed, and often no more glad; a face of joy we wear, because glad we have been of yore.

4. Through the night we watched her breathing, her breathing soft and low, as the wave of life kept heaving to and fro in her breast.

5. We seem'd to speak so silently, moved about so slowly, as [if] we had lent her half our powers to eke out her living.

6. So, when youth and years are flown, shall appear the fairest face; such is the robe that, when death hath reft their crown, kings must

wear.

D.-Arrange each of the following into Complex Regular

verses :

1. Now the half-extinguished moon displays her crescent, gliding remote, on the verge of the sky: I but lately marked [the time] when she shone majestic on high, and the planets were lost in her blaze. (4 lines, tetrameter, rhyming alternately.)

2. There came a poor exile of Erin to the beach; heavy and chill was the thin dew on his robe; when repairing at twilight to wander alone by the wind-beaten hill, he sighed for his country. (4 lines, -2 tetrameters exces., and 2 tetrameters, rhyming alternately.)

3. I'll not leave thee to pine on the stem, thou lone one! since the lovely are sleeping, go thou, sleep with them; thus thy leaves I kindly scatter o'er the bed where scentless and dead lie thy mates of the garden. (8 lines, dimeter exces., and mixed dimeters, the latter rhyming.) 4. For his love he had liv'd, he died for his country. They were all that had entwin'd him to life; nor shall the tears of his country soon be dried, nor will his love stay long behind him. (4 lines,-2 tetrameters and 2 trimiters exces., rhyming alternately.)

E. Arrange each of the following in Blank Verse:

1. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

2. Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness! This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth the tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, and bears his blushing honours thick upon him; the third day comes a frost, a killing frost, and, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely his greatness is a-ripening,-nips his root,—and then he falls as I do.

3. So the foundations of his mind were laid. In such communion,

not from terror free, while yet a child, and long before his time, had he perceived the presence and the power of greatness; and deep feelings had impressed so vividly great objects, that they lay upon his mind like substances whose presence perplexed the bodily sense.

4. Then, when I am thy captive, talk of chains, proud limitary cherub! but ere then far heavier load thyself expect to feel from my prevailing arm, though heaven's king ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, used to the yoke, drawest his triumphant wheels in progress through the road of heaven star-paved.

Chapter III.-Irregular Measure.

121. Of this measure, as of the Regular, there are two varie ties:

1. Simple Irregular measure; a x, a x, &c.

2. Complex Irregular measure; a s s, a s s, &c.

1. Simple (ax).*

122 The Simple Irregular measure is generally defective. This arises from the awkwardness of constant double rhymes (§ 99, III.), and from the tendency of the verse to throw off a weak syllable at the end; e.g.:—

"Lauded be thy name for ev -er,

Thou of life the guard and giver."-Hogg.

Frequently complete and defective verses alternate ; e. g. :"Fill the bumper fair; (x)

Every drop we sprinkle

On the brow of care (x)

Smoothes away a wrinkle."-Moore.

"Life is real! Life is earnest,

And the grave is not its goal; (x)

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul." (x)—Longfellow.

123. The general character of the irregular measure, as compared with the regular, is cheerful and lively. Thus in Milton's "L'Allegro" (the Mirthful), defective irregular verses predominate, while in his companion poem, "Il Penseroso" (the Melancholy) regular verses are in excess. For example, in twenty-six lines chosen at random from the former poem, there are fifteen irregular and eleven regular verses. In the same number of lines from the latter, nineteen are regular, and only seven irregular.

*So-called Trochaic.

124. Simple irregular verses are of various lengths, from one foot to eight; but the most common are Tetrameters (complete and defective), e. g. ;—

"Tell me not in mournful numbers,

'Life is but an empty dream,'

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem."-Longfellow

Or with a different arrangement of rhymes—

"In his chamber, weak and dying,
Was the Norinan baron lying;
Loud, without, the tempest thunder'd,
And the castle turret shook.

In this fight was death the gainer,
'Spite of vassal and retainer,

And the lands his sires had plunder'd

Written in the Doomsday Book."-Longfellow.

Or defective Tetrameters throughout

"Other Romans shall arise,

Heedless of a soldier's name;

Sounds, not arms, shall win the prize,

Harmony the path to fame."-Cowper.

125. The prevalence of the same measure in Milton's "L'Allegro" has already been referred to (§ 123). Tennyson also employs it, but with similar licence to Milton; thus, in "The Lady of Shalott," which is irregular in the general character of its verse, the refrain in every stanza is a regular Trimeter, and there is only one stanza in the whole poem in which the other verses are irregular throughout :

"Willows whiten, aspens quiver,

Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river

Flowing down to Camelot.

Four gray walls and four gray towers

Overlook a space of flowers,

And the silent isle embowers

The Lady of Shalott."

But in the latter part of the next stanza, he breaks into the

regular measure:—

"But whó hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?

Or is she known in all the land,

The Lady of Shalott?"-Tennyson.

126. The measure of "Locksley Hall," and Longfellow's "Belfry of Bruges," is generally considered irregular, equivalent to a complete Tetrameter and a defective Tetrameter in one long line. But the stress on the alternate accents (2d, 4th, 6th, and 8th), is evidently greater than that on the others (1st, 3d, 5th, and 7th). It is in fact equivalent to a double accent, as is indi cated in the formula, a xa xaxaxaxaxaxa: e. g.:

127. Irregular verse is generally rhymed: but Longfellow has written a long Indian epic poem, "Hiawatha," in unrhymed irregular Tetrameters; e. g. :

"There the little Hiawatha

Learned of every bird its language,

Learned their names and all their secrets,
How they built their nests in summer,
Where they hid themselves in winter,
Talked with them where'er he met them,
Called them 'Hiawatha's chickens.'
Of all beasts he learned the language,
Learned their names and all their secrets,
How the beavers built their lodges,
Where the squirrels hid their acorns,
How the rein-deer ran so swiftly,

Why the rabbit was so timid,

Talked with them where'er he met them,

Called them Hiawatha's Brothers.'"-Longfellow.

2. Complex (ass).*

128. Complex Irregular verse is sometimes chosen, as the complex regular verse also is, for dirges and laments; e. g. :

So-called Dactylic.